Right up above the mast did stand, No bigger than the Moon.

"Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

"Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink.

"The very deep did rot: O Christ!
That ever this should be!

Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.

"About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue and white.

And the Alba

tross begins to be avenged.

"And some in dreams assured were
Of the spirit that plagued us so;
Nine fathom deep he had follow'd us
From the land of mist and snow.

A spirit had followed them; one of the invisible inhabitants of this planet, neither departed souls nor angels; concerning whom the learned Jew,

Josephus, and the Platonic Constantinopolitan, Michael Psellus, may be consulted. They are very numerous, and there is no climate or element without one or more.

"And every tongue, through utter drought,
Was withered at the root;

We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choked with soot.

The shipmates, in their sore distress, would fain throw the whole

"Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!

guilt on the an

cient Mariner: in

sign whereof

18

they hang the dead sea-bird

round his neck.

The Ancient Mariner.

Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung."